Vasile Jula

Vasile Ilie "Lică" Jula (born 13 December 1974) is a retired Romanian footballer who played as a defender.^[2]

Vasile Jula

Personal information
Full name	Vasile Ilie Jula
Date of birth	(1974-12-13) 13 December 1974 (age 50)
Place of birth	Dej, Romania
Height	1.84 m (6 ft 0 in)
Position	Defender
Youth career
1984–1992	Universitatea Cluj
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1992–1993	Universitatea Cluj	1	(0)
1993–1994	Armătura Zalău[a]	3	(0)
1994–1999	Universitatea Cluj	111	(0)
1999–2004	Gloria Bistrița	102	(1)
2004–2007	CFR Cluj	74	(6)
2007–2008	Dacia Mioveni	13	(0)
2008–2013	FC Zalău
Total		304+	(7+)
Managerial career
2013	FC Zalău
2019	Unirea Mirșid
2021	SCM Zalău (caretaker)
* Club domestic league appearances and goals as of 1 March 2018 ‡ National team caps and goals as of 1 March 2018

Club career

Jula was born on 13 December 1974 in Dej, Romania, and began playing junior-level football in 1984 at Universitatea Cluj.^[1][3] He made his Divizia A debut on 20 June 1993, playing for "U" under the guidance of coach Remus Vlad in a 5–1 away loss to Gloria Bistrița.^[1][3][4] Afterwards he spent one and a half seasons to Divizia B club, Armătura Zalău.^[1][5] In the middle of the 1994–95 season, Jula returned to Universitatea.^[1][5]

In 1999, he joined Gloria Bistrița where he spent five seasons, the highlight of this period being a third place in the 2002–03 season.^[1][5] In 2004, Jula switched teams again, going to CFR Cluj.^[1][5] Under coach Dorinel Munteanu he played eight games in the 2005 Intertoto Cup campaign as CFR got past Vėtra, Athletic Bilbao, Saint-Étienne and Žalgiris, scoring once against each of the first and the latter, the team reaching the final where they were defeated 4–2 on aggregate by Lens.^[1][6][7] He also helped The Railwaymen earn a third place in the 2006–07 season.^[1]

Jula moved to Dacia Mioveni for the following season where on 23 February 2008 he made his last Romanian first league appearance in a 3–0 away loss to Vaslui, having a total of 301 matches with seven goals scored in the competition, and also totaling 13 games with two goals in the Intertoto Cup.^[1][5] In 2008 he joined third league side FC Zalău where he played for five years, retiring afterwards.^[1][2][5]

International career

In 2005, he was called up by coach Victor Pițurcă to play for Romania, but he was only a reserve during the 2006 World Cup qualification game against Finland.^[8]

Managerial career

In the first part of the 2013–14 season, Jula was the manager of FC Zalău in the third league.^[9] In February 2019, he was appointed head coach at Unirea Mirșid, managing by the end of the season to earn promotion from the fourth to the third league.^[5][10] In April 2021, Jula was the caretaker manager of SCM Zalău.^[11]

Honours

Player

CFR Cluj

• Intertoto Cup runner-up: 2005^[6]

Manager

Unirea Mirșid

• Liga IV: 2018–19^[5]

Notes

1. The statistics for the 1993–94 Divizia B season are unavailable.^[1]